Female figurine with white-filled incised decoration

On display

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Catalogue text

Baked; handmodelled; brownish ochre fabric, highly burnished; the incised decoration is in deep cut lines made before firing and then filled with a white substance of which traces remain; flat, stylized form. As a deeply incised line separates it from the top of the head, the round flat object may be a cap rather than dressed hair. The back of the "cap" is elaborately patterned with chevrons in four quadrants, each band marked with incised dots; the front has a zigzag line with dots alternating in the triangles. A similar pattern marks the hair across the brow. The eyebrows and nose are incised lines, with the eyes, a dot within a square, drawn away to the sides of the face, no mouth is clearly shown (a mark in the clay seems to be accidental); and no ears. There is a necklace with linear pendants above crossing-straps, marked out with dots. On either side rises in the clay, indicating breasts, are overlaid with incised chevrons up to the arm stubs; the navel is indicated; there is a "girdle" with a design of chevrons, above the highly stylised genitals; at this point the figurine terminates in a curving line. On the reverse are two tassels, pendant from the "cap", above crossing-straps depicted as on the front. It appears that the figure is nude.

In: Moorey, P. R. S., Ancient Near Eastern Terracottas (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2005)

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